1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a method for the analysis of a synchronized data traffic of a packet-based and address-based data network with a number of data-generating and/or data-receiving network participants that can respectively be addressed by individual network addresses, wherein the data network synchronizes received data packets and known transmission and processing times using receipt points in time, and the data transmissions ensue synchronized with the data traffic.
Furthermore, the invention concerns a network for data and signal transmission with multiple network participants connected among one another, which participants respectively have different network addresses, wherein every network participant has transmission and reception modules in which data packets to be sent via the data network are generated and received data packets are processed, and the transmission and reception modules have synchronization modules that mutually synchronize the network participants using reception points in time of received cells and known transmission and processing times, wherein the transmission modules are fashioned such that they transfer the data packets in a synchronized manner in the data network.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The network described above is generally known. An example is described in DE 10 2005 008 503 B3. This document discloses a network for data and signal transmission that has multiple end devices as well as one or more switching stations as network components. The network components have transmission and reception modules; the transmission modules send the data to be transferred and digitized signals assembled into lines. The lines are generated with a header in which an item of connection information about at least one transmission or relaying destination of the data is incorporated. The network components have synchronization modules that mutually synchronize the network components using reception points in time of received lines and known transmission and processing times; and the transmission modules are fashioned such that they transfer the lines synchronously via the one or more switching stations.
Furthermore, general diagnostic tools for the data traffic are known. These diagnostic tools are normally connected to the network via special adapters that conduct the data acquisition and output the results to a PC. Such diagnostic tools are, however, not usable across the network, or cannot be controlled and programmed across the network because they require a special access mechanism to the freely programmable circuits contained there and a special software to use this.
Moreover, a significant problem of these known diagnostic tools is that they lead to an altered temporal behavior of the network participants that are observed as soon as the data streams of interest are recorded and analyzed. Due to this altered temporal behavior, significant problems with the timing within the network additionally result in time-synchronized networks.
A network apparatus for packet data networks is known from United States Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0114831 A1. To analyze the data traffic, the transferred data are observed in that these data are mirrored to another port without the data traffic thereby being negatively affected.